6 - Sunday, February 8, 1998 - North Shore News Gold-medal effort | OR the 18th time, the world’s elite winter athletes are gathered under the glow of the Olympic flame. Among them are three North Shore competitors — hockey player Paul Kariya and snowboarders Darren Chalmers and Maélle Ricker. And while each took different paths on their march to the Japanese alps and the Nagano Olympic Games, all three share one thing: roots in a strong sports community. Had it not been for the tireless com- mitment of North Shore volunteers — from coaches to officials to adminis- trators — the road to Nagano would have been much more difficult for our Olympians to navigate. All three athletes grew up on the North Shore and all three played numerous community-based sports north shore news VIEWPOINT prior to settling on the disciplines that would make them famous. The Olympic Games are still the pinnacle of athletic competition, yet without strong support and involve- ment at the grassroots level, the cre- ation and nurturing of high-calibre athletes destined for the Games would be difficult, if not impossible. Some countries, particularly before the breakup of the Eastern Bloc, made the production of world-class athletes a factory affair. Not in Canada. The final medal count will always be the measure of a country’s success at the Olympics. The true measure of a country’s sporting success, however, is best assessed by the number of plain old good citizens who give up their Saturdays and Sundays so the kids can play. Gold medallists, every one. mailbox Can’t see Howe Sound for the trees Dear Editor: I feel compelled to write you regarding the Sea-to-Sky Highway. In years past it was always a pleasure to drive along the beautiful shoreline of North America’s most southerly fjord and we-and our out-of-town visitors were able to marvel at the magnificent views. Unfortunately, there is hardly any view left. Driving along the highway now is like driving through a green tunnel. The trees on the ocean side (mostly deciduous trees) have been allowed to grow unchecked and are block- ing the view of one of British Columbia’s most beautiful scenery. Ina province where tourism is one of the most important industries, it is surprising that an assct like this is allowed to deteriorate and virtually disappear before your eyes. Even the few viewpoints are not really viewpoints any more as you have to crane your neck at most of them to get a glimpse at what is beyond the trees. . If the province likes tourist dollars, is it not about time to do something about it, even if some tree huggers scream blue murder that a few junk trees are being cut down? ELK. Kuchnel North Vancouver hkuehnel@direct.ca MAILBOX POLICY LETTERS to the editor must be legible (preferably type- written) and include your name, full address and telephone number. - - Due to space constraints the North Shore News cannot publish all letters. Published letters may be edited for brevi- ty, clarity, accuracy, legaliry and taste. Submissions can be faxed’ to 985-2104 but still must be signed and fully addressed. f north shore Morth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualtied under Schechuie 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, 6S published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press ‘Ltd. and distnbuted to every door on the North ‘Shore. Canada Post Canadian Pubhcabons Mad Sales Product Agreement No, 0087238. Mailing rates avaiable on request. Distribution 908-1337 (126) cobain ll 985-2131 (127) 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) SO you don’t, after all, own the lot on which your neat, mort- gage-free North Shore home sits. The Squamish Indians own it. And they may have a better use for it than housing you. What else to make of last Monday’s screaming front-page headline “B.C. Indian chiefs lay claim to entire province, resources”? Nor was it kidding. i wo days earli- er the First Nations Summit, representing the province’s 102,000 reserve Indians, had presented its latest demands to fed- eral Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart and her B.C. counterpart John Cashore. And those claims did indeed appear to boil down to “every tree, every rock, every fish and every animal in the . province.” This time the Indians came waving the often incomprehensible Delgamuukw land claim judgment handed down two months ago by the Supreme Court of Canada. This overturned a 1987 BC Supreme Court ruling that aboriginal land rights had been extinguished at the time of colonization. Not so, declared the distant, ermine- robed justices in Orrawa, seven of the nine trom central and eastern Canada with no firsthand feeling for the unique B.C. land claims situation. The court stopped just short of saying that B.C. natives actually owned their ancestral PETER SPECK 985-2131 (101) 905-2151 (17) photoset Classified 985-2131 (160) 906-€222 (202) $85-2131 (133) Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. WHEN AH SINS NO, Alt SADDAM THE MOST ORNERY VARMINT IN THE MIDDLE EAST lands, but declared their land rights to be far more sweeping than ever before defined — including, in most cases, enti- dement to much “more than mere con- sultation” on land use (could that even include a veto?). Although lawyers have now been puzzling for eight weeks over the judgment’s precise meaning, the Indians have inevitably inter- preted it as giving them effective CON- TROL of all BC land, public and private. Presumably “more than mere consultation” means the native voice is at least equal to the non-native voice in land use matters. So who makes the final decision? Beyond suggesting negoti- ation rather than further litigation, the learned judges on the Rideau refrained from enlightening us. Nor so the natives. Wrapt in their “Court-gives-us-B.C.” flag, they have demanded an immediate freeze on all development of land or resources any- where in the province. As if the fallout from the Asian financial meltdown isn’t bad enough, the B.C. economy has now been put on indefinite hold. The First Nations Summit claims its “freeze” demand is not intended to bankrupt the province and suggests everything could be back to normal in 60 days by fast-tracking a new settlement procedure for the floundering BC Treaty Commission. But until it’s crystal clear exactly who does controi the use of B.C.’s land, what sane New York, erecesa} — Court muddies B.C.-Indian waters London or Frankfurt investor is going to risk a single dime here? ~ ae Nor is the situation likely to help: nati nal unity much. Many British Col. mbians already feel alienated towards the central Canada establish-. ment, due to its ongoing neglect of B.C. interests, That resentment can only be -- increased by the legal morass — with its resultant economic damage — into” which the Supreme Court has now plunged the province. Call it the “Quebec West” syndrome. . The worse the economic damage, the . more B.C. citizens may query why they -. should suffer at the dictates of a court. ~ almost 80% representative of an uncaring: central and eastern Canada. From there - it’s only a skort step to wondering . __ whether land claims might be far more. ° satisfactorily handled on both sides if th province, with its three million peopic : and rich resources, were an independen nation — free to work out a fair and- equitable deal directly with the native ~ 3.4% of its population, instead of with - wards of Ottawa. ~ He Muddied waters :an breed ‘unhealthy ‘: thoughts. Eastern papers please copy! ~ Q . CONGRATS to City Parks:Manager . Bill Granger, elected chairman of the:: North Shore Gardens Contest Society, now into its 12th season’... And many °° happy returns of today, Feb. 8, to West Van birthday boys Willy Brueckel and”. Hugh Addison, both celebrating their: 73rd. . : 000 . WRIGHT OR WRONG: If everything is coming your way, you’re probably in . the wrong lane. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca ig oo : th aid Comptrolter Managitg Editor 985-2131 (116) arisne r Display Manager jomotions 19 (166) 985-2131 (218) General Ofice 985-2131 (105) Intemat- bttpy//www.asnsws.com Michael Becker - News Editor $85-2131.(194) Andrew McCredie - Sparte/Community Editor 985-2131 (147) Tha Morth Shore Mews is published by North Shore Free Press Ltd., Publisher Peter Speck, from 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver, B.C., V7M 2H4